During operation of a food processor in its various modes of destructuring food items there is a tendency of the cut or chopped food pieces, or the fluidized food item(s), to collect unevenly, particularly along the interior peripheral wall (and sometimes on the bottom wall) of the processor chamber at locations that are out of reach of the rotating blade. As a result the processing operation can be uneven and/or take longer to complete. In order to overcome this problem some users of food processors will turn the processor off, remove the chamber cover, and attempt to consolidate or re-position the food items with a spoon or other common kitchen utensil. The shapes of such utensils are less than ideal for this function, thereby rendering the consolidation process time consuming and unwieldy. In addition, the central blade-mounting post in the food processor complicates utensil access to the processor contents. It is therefore desirable to provide a tamping tool that permits the operator to quickly and effectively consolidate the food pieces to permit efficient de-structuring by the processor.
Upon removal of de-structured food pieces or fluidized food items from a food processor, some of the fluids or pieces do not readily pour out of the chamber and must be scraped from the interior bottom and side chamber walls. Again, operators tend to do this with common kitchen utensils which are inefficiently configured for this function. Here, too, the central post in the processor chamber presents a problem by impeding access of the utensil to all of the food residue. Therefore, it is desirable to provide a scraper tool that is capable of quickly and efficiently scraping and removing residue food pieces and fluidized food from the bottom and side walls food processor chamber.
It is even more desirable to provide a single tool configured to efficiently provide both a tamping and scraping capability for manipulating the contents of a food processor chamber.
Another disadvantage of common kitchen utensils when used to tamp or scrape food in a food processor chamber relates to the configuration of the utensil handle. Specifically, the working head of the utensil must be moved vertically and rotationally to effect the tamping and scraping operations. A straight handle, as is typically provided on the utensil, requires undue manipulation of the operator's wrist or arm in effecting the necessary tamping or scraping movement of the head. In addition, thin handles of circular or polygonal configuration tend to rotate in a user's hand when the distal end of the utensil encounters resistance to rotation.
Thus, it would be desirable to provide a single tool configured, as described above, having a handle configured to overcome these disadvantages.